U.S. Pat. No. 472,918 discloses a laundry feeding machine including a conveyor moving through a suction induction tunnel. Articles are held at their upper edges by an automatically releasing clamp to hang in front of the induction tunnel. Upon release of the clamp, a valving system is immediately actuated to apply suction to suck the article in to lie flat on the conveyor to be transported thereby. FIGS. 10 and 11 show an embodiment particularly adapted to the handling of very wide articles such as bed sheets including a transverse suction chamber that is evacuated by a blower at either end. The conveyor belts pass immediately over the top of the suction chamber. A nip roller 92 is positioned close to the end of the tunnel 94 to provide an adequate air seal to insure that the flow of air from the tunnel inlet 96 is confined to flow into the suction chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,502 describes a feeding aid for assisting in the feeding of laundry flatwork to laundry processing equipment such as an ironer.
EP-A1-2584087 discloses a machine for spreading out and loading flat clothing articles onto a conveyor belt 30. The machine comprises a separator element 9 in the shape of a plate located above the conveyor belt 30 and the suction chamber. This separator element is moved by driving means in coordination with the movements of a protective cover 11 (associated to spreading clamps) between a separating position (FIG. 9) corresponding with the free passage position of the protective cover 11, and a refracted position (FIG. 10) corresponding with the retaining position of the protective cover 11. In the mentioned separating position (FIG. 9), a separating edge 9a of said separator element 9 is at a distance from the protective cover 11, which is located in its free passage position. This distance is sufficient to allow the passage of a first, second and third flat clothing articles A1, A2, A3 (A1 in FIG. 9) held and moved by the first or second spreading clamps 4a, 4b; 5a, 5b between their receiving and spread out positions but insufficient to allow the access of the hands of an operator to dangerous areas of the machine where the spreading clamps move at high speed.
However the embodiments of the prior art still are deficient in the transfer of the flat clothing articles as linen from the spreading clamps when being blow pushed onto the conveyor, mainly at the loading end or entrance of the conveyor and in the transition area. The following problems have been detected:                loads due to undulation parts of the flat clothing while released by the clamps should be relieved        the fall of the article should be better mastered;        efficiently flat positioning of the article on the conveyor loading end is needed;        a suitable cutch up of the corners is required;        avoid interference between the pieces of clothing transferred and the newly arrived;        reduce the friction of the clothing.        
The present invention addresses all these problems and provides a suitable solution thereof.